East Sussex Record Office's lists of some of the region's oldest documents are to be put on the internet, with a little help from some Mauritius typists.

The lists, which cover documents from the 12th Century to modern times, will be available on the internet as part of the national Access to Archives (A2A) project, hosted by the Public Records Office.

The scheme involves shipping lists of records to Mauritius, where labour costs are cheaper, to have the information inputted.

The project, From Landlord to Labourer, involves 15 record offices in the South-East and digitising 32,000 index pages of the region's most significant estate and family archives.

East Sussex, which received more than £85,000 of funding, is the second largest contributor, with 4,500 pages covering East Sussex, America, Turkey and China.

In the past, people wanting information about a particular person, place or topic have had to visit the record office in person or make an inquiry by letter or telephone.

Putting the lists of the archive collection on a database will improve access for the local community and, through the internet, make details available to people all over the world.

The project will also make information easier to find for disabled people, people with limited resources to travel and young people.

Brighton and Hove archivist Wendy Walker said: "It's about opening up the archives to people of all ages around the globe."

By the end of the first phase of the A2A project, an estimated 14 per cent of UK record office listings will have been digitised.

The next phase begins in April with the South-East region focusing on military and naval documents.

Senior archivist Chris Whit-tick said: "The key phrase is critical mass. The more information is available, the more people will be able to cross-reference records about different people and places and the more interested they will be."

Currently, each office has lists of archives, some on paper and some on computer, but they are not catalogued on a database.

The offices will order the lists according to international standards before sending them to Mauritius.

The files will then be returned to the Public Records Office and posted on the A2A website. The listings will be held at the local record office on its database.

East Sussex has also been awarded £105,000 after a bid to the New Opportunities Fund for a project, Unlocking the Past, co-ordinated by Sophie Houlton, to digitise lists of administration records before posting them on the A2A website.

There are currently no plans to digitise the documents because of the volume involved - there are more than three miles of shelved documents and the office receives more than 150 new batches each year. But popular documents like parish registers used by family historians may be digitised, along with materials for occasional use, like school projects.

Ms Walker said: "The media can cause bursts of activity, such as when a programme looks at investigating the history of your house and it's difficult to predict what information people will be looking for or finding.

"Many people don't know what to do with important information when they've finished using it. The internet has made everything faster and anything not in daily use is history."

The staff at the record office are keen to change this. Mr Whittick said: "Everyone has got a history and it's our job to put them in touch with it."

www.eastsussexcc.gov.uk/
archives/main.htm www.a2a.pro.gov.uk